Always There For You
by amaranth-moon15
Summary: Happens during 3rd life mild spoilers . The case gets to Hotch more than he is willing to admit. Hotch & Emily. Rating for rather cruel CM case.


_**Spoilers: Mild spoilers for 3rd life (3x12)**_

_**Disclaimer: Characters not mine. Just borrowed for fun and pleasure.**_

_**A/N: When I was watching 3rd life, this just felt like the scene they had forgotten to show us, so I had to write it down instead. Reviews are cookies :o)**_

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Garcia had managed to restore the voices, making the strangled girl's last words audible. They all did not like the idea to have the parents identify their dead girl's voice the least, but it was the only way it could be done.

Katie's mother kept the least bit of strength, although she'd not expected to be able to have it. Her father immediately went into denial. It couldn't be his daughter, it just wasn't. Eventually, reality hit him all the harder, and he nearly broke down, his friend leading him out of the police station, providing support and strength he no longer had.

The BAU team was left wiser but feeling even worse. They could almost physically feel the parents' pain, but only one out of the group of profilers could actually really imagine how the parents had to feel, could imagine their pain, could see how utterly meaningless and futile their lifes had become in one short moment. Hotch was the only one of them who was a parent himself. He could just feel that this case would give him more than a headache.

Later that evening the team had returned to the hotel, wanting to catch a few hours of sleep before they could continue their painful work. Hotch and Emily were the last ones to get back. They parted in the lobby, Emily going off to haunt the vending machine before going to her room. When she crossed the lobby again on the way to the elevators, she caught a glimpse of Hotch standing at the bar, a glass of whisky in front of him. Emily shighed. Already back at the station she had noticed that this one would be harder on Hotch than any ordinary case, but did not comment on it as she knew he'd be uncomfortable with it. Like herself, Hotch preferred to deal with his daemons on his own. But seeing him standing there, looking not only lost in his thoughts but even in his entire existence, just continuing to walk was very hard for her. She cared about her boss, probably more than he or any other person should ever know, and it would not do any good to act on an impulse right now.

Hotch's room was adjacent to Emily's. She heard him return to his room not much later, when she lay awake in her bed. This case was hurting her as well. Young, lively, innocent girls - it made her sick to think of what had happened to Katie and might still happen to Lindsay. And she was hurting for Hotch, desperately wanting to help him, make the pain more bearable for him, take at least some of the weight from his shoulders. But how could she? She sighed, for what seemed to be the millionth time tonight. She knew she was not going to get much sleep tonight.

Some time later, Emily could not tell whether it had been minutes or hours - she obviously must at least have dozed off, she heard noise from the room next door. She was immediately wide awake. The noise was coming from Hotch's room. For once, Emily was glad many hotels had walls that seemed to be made of cardboard only. She got up, instinctively moving closer to the wall, straining her ears to make out the sounds that came from the adjacent room. She soon realised that Hotch was moaning and hushedly screaming in his sleep, all too familiar was the noise of nightmares to her.

Without any further thinking she got out of her room, and hammered on his door, not seeing any better way to wake him up as quickly as possible. It didn't take long for Hotch to come to open the door, looking sleep rumpled, an expression of sheer horror on his face. Emily didn't leave his sleepy brain any chance, she moved into his room, kicked the door shut and all but threw herself at him, pulled him into a tight embrace and cradled his face on her shoulder. She closed her eyes and buried her face in his neck as well. For long moments all she did was stroke his back and his hair, holding him close and willing him to take the comfort she was offering. Hotch clung to her like a terrified little boy, not caring in the slightest about his stoic façade, his usual calm or any other mask that he might have put on otherwise. It clenched Emilys heart to feel his desperation. Never before had she seen her boss so helpless, at loss for anything to do, to help himself. It was almost frightening.

Slowly, she walked them backwards to his bed, gently made him lie down again and climbed in as well when he would not let go of her. She settled herself on her back, pulled him close and he immediately buried his face again in her neck. Emily drew up the blankets around them, and moved her right hand to stroke his head again, tangling her fingers in his hair, trying to soothe him with small, comforting gestures. Neither said any word, it was not necessary. Emily would just be here for him, his accepting of her support being all the reassurance she needed that he would be able to go through this one too. But this time, not alone.

Much later, Emily still lay awake, from his now steady breathing she could tell Hotch had found the sleep into which he had cried himself once he had finally relaxed enough to let free those tears to wash away at least a small part of the pain, the helplessness and the desperation he was feeling. Still stroking his head, Emily planted a feathery kiss on his forehead and whispered "Sleep, Aaron. I'm here for you. I always will be."


End file.
